Obama-Congress Paychecks Safe From Automatic Budget Cuts

Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) -- While hundreds of thousands of U.S.
government employees may be furloughed due to federal spending
cuts, President Barack Obama and members of Congress won’t need
to worry about their paychecks.

The across-the-board reductions set to begin tomorrow might
eventually close air-traffic control towers, reduce the number
of nutrition vouchers for low-income children and lead to unpaid
leave at the Pentagon and other agencies.

The cuts, known as sequestration, will have no impact on
the president, U.S. lawmakers and other top government
officials. It is especially ironic that Congress, which has the
power to avert the reductions, has nothing to lose in the
negotiations, said Dan Gordon, former head of federal
procurement in the Obama administration.

“The members of Congress are damaging our country by their
refusal to repeal sequestration, and I think the American public
would like them to personally feel some of the pain they are
imposing,” said Gordon, an associate dean at George Washington
University law school in Washington.

“Whether it’s travelers at airports, visitors to national
parks or children in the schools -- they’re all going to be
suffering because of the refusal of members of Congress to do
their jobs,” he said in a phone interview.

President’s Pay

Unless they’re averted, the automatic cuts would total $85
billion in the final seven months of this fiscal year and a
total of $1.2 trillion over nine years. About half would come
from defense and the rest from discretionary domestic spending.

Sequestration’s effects, including the furloughs, aren’t
likely to be felt for several weeks, Gordon said. Many of the
reductions won’t be felt immediately because of the 30-day
notice requirement for furloughs.

The automatic cuts could slice gross domestic product
growth by 0.6 percent while reducing the level of employment by
750,000 jobs, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget
Office.

The president’s pay of $400,000 a year is exempt from cuts,
according to documents provided by the White House Office of
Management and Budget. It is set by Congress, which also
approves its own salary.

Most lawmakers receive annual pay of $174,000, with those
in leadership posts paid more. House Speaker John Boehner, an
Ohio Republican, gets $223,500, and House Democratic Leader
Nancy Pelosi of California collects $193,400.

Cabinet secretaries and many other senior agency officials
appointed by the president can’t be furloughed because “they
are considered to be entitled to the pay of their offices solely
by virtue of their status as an officer” rather than by the
hours they work, according to Office of Personnel Management
documents.

Offering Sacrifice

There have been some offers of sacrifice.

In September, a few dozen House members endorsed cutting
their own pay, Senate salaries and the paychecks of Obama and
Vice President Joe Biden if sequestration took effect. The
proposal from Charlie Bass, then a Republican representative
from New Hampshire, would have reduced salaries for all the
elected officials by 8.2 percent.

It didn’t get to a floor vote.

Representative Tom Petri, a Republican from Wisconsin, said
he co-sponsored the bill because it “seemed to be in the spirit
of fairness.”

“You don’t walk into a room and say this won’t apply to
me, but I think you all need to tighten your belts,” Petri said
in a phone interview.

If sequestration occurs, Petri “would consider giving”
part of his pay to charity, spokesman Lee Brooks said in an e-mail.

Pentagon Furloughs

Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, whose job is
protected from cuts, offered to return 20 percent of his salary
to the Treasury if furloughs begin. The Pentagon has said as
many as 750,000 civilian employees may be required to take one
day a week of unpaid leave for as long as 22 weeks under
sequestration.

“So there’s a real human impact here,” Carter testified
before the House Armed Services Committee this month. “We’re
asking all those people who are furloughed to give back a fifth
of their salary.”

Carter’s new boss, Chuck Hagel, hasn’t said whether he will
join in the sacrifice. He was confirmed by the Senate on Feb. 26
as defense secretary.

There’s been no word from Hagel’s chief. Jessica Santillo,
an Office of Management and Budget spokeswoman, didn’t respond
to a e-mailed question about whether Obama would give a portion
of his salary to charity or return it to the Treasury if
sequestration occurs.

Transportation Department

At the Transportation Department, “there aren’t any
similar plans,” Meghan Keck, an agency spokeswoman, said when
asked whether Secretary Ray LaHood, Deputy Secretary John
Porcari or any heads of the sub-agencies would volunteer for pay
cuts due to the sequester.

Most of the roughly 47,000 workers at the Federal Aviation
Administration, part of the Transportation Department, may be
required to take one day of unpaid leave during each two-week
pay period through September. Air-traffic controllers and other
FAA workers would take about 11 days of mandatory time off,
Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee said in a report
this month.

Sarah Horowitz, a Commerce Department spokeswoman, declined
to comment on whether the agency’s undersecretaries and other
senior officials will be subject to reductions in pay or
benefits if the cuts occur.

Congressional Offices

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or
NOAA, would reduce the number of its contractors by about 1,400
and furlough as many as 2,600 employees if the cuts occur,
Deputy Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank said this month in a
letter to Senator Barbara Mikulski, the Maryland Democrat who
leads the Appropriations Committee.

As for Congress, “every House leadership, committee, and
member office will be cutting spending” if sequestration
occurs, Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Boehner, said in an e-mail. “The speaker’s office will be no different.”

Buck didn’t respond to questions about whether Boehner
would return a portion of his salary to the Treasury. Neither
did Adam Jentleson and Jose Parra, spokesmen for Senator Harry
Reid, the Nevada Democrat who is Senate majority leader.